How did Tupac Shakur influence baby names in the 1990s?

Tupac's last studio album, "All Eyez on Me" (1996).
Tupac album

Though we remember him today as a West Coast rapper — one of his biggest hits was “California Love,” after all — Tupac Shakur was actually raised on the East Coast.

Tupac Shakur (pronounced TOO-pahk shah-KOOR) was born into a politically active family in New York City in 1971.

At birth, his given names were “Lesane Parish.” But his mother, Afeni, decided to change them to “Tupac Amaru” when he was one year old. The new names honored Túpac Amaru II, an indigenous man who led a rebellion against Spanish rule in Peru in the 1780s. (The names Tupac and Amaru are based on the Quechua words thupa, meaning “royal” or “resplendent,” and amaru, meaning “snake.”)

Tupac moved to California until the late 1980s. His first studio album, 2Pacalypse Now (1991), was a commercial success. It was followed by several more successful albums, including All Eyez on Me, which was rap’s first double album. Tupac also had a career as an actor, starring in films like Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), and Above the Rim (1994).

Sadly, his life was cut short by a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996.

His years of fame, and his sudden death, resulted in all three of his names — Tupac, Amaru, and Shakur — seeing higher usage (as boy names) during the 1990s. Tupac debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1993, and Amaru debuted in 1996. Shakur (which comes from the Arabic word for “thankful”) saw a 5-fold increase in usage from 1992 to 1993, followed by peak usage in 1997.

TupacAmaruShakur
199953149
1998102481
19971031119†
199697*87
1995..46
1994..79
19937*.66
1992..11
1991...
*Debut, †Peak usage

But it doesn’t end there.

Tupac Shakur spent most of 1995 in prison. One of the books he read while there was the infamous 1513 political treatise The Prince (“…it is much safer to be feared than loved…”) by Florentine statesman and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli (pronounced mah-kee-ah-VEH-lee).

The Prince inspired Tupac to create a new stage name: Makaveli. He only had a chance to use the alias once, though — for his fifth studio album, released two months after his murder. The following year, the unlikely name Makaveli popped up in the baby name data:

  • 1999: unlisted
  • 1998: unlisted
  • 1997: 11 baby boys named Makaveli [debut]
  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: unlisted

(Interestingly, the original spelling of the name, Machiavelli, started appearing in the data in 2013 — exactly 500 years after The Prince was written.)

Sources:

Mystery baby names: Romayne & Romaine

Graph of the usage of the baby name Romaine in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Romaine

Writing about Amish names a few weeks ago reminded me of Romaine and Romayne, which saw relatively high usage in the state of Pennsylvania (as girl names) during the early-to-mid 20th century.

The more popular spelling, Romaine, appeared in the national data from the 1880s to the 1990s. For most of that period, it saw its highest usage in Pennsylvania.

Here’s a look at the data for Romaine from the 1920s, for instance:

Girls named Romaine, U.S.Girls named Romaine, PA
19298739 (45%)
192891*45 (49%)
19278046 (58%)
19266436 (56%)
19257135 (49%)
19247439 (53%)
19236832 (47%)
19228854* (61%)
19217843 (55%)
19207341 (56%)
*Peak usage

The less popular spelling, Romayne, appeared in the national data from the early 1900s to the 1960s. From at least the 1910s until the 1940s, the majority of Romayne’s usage was in Pennsylvania.

Here’s the data for Romayne from the 1920s:

Girls named Romayne, U.S.Girls named Romayne, PA
19294523 (51%)
192847*30* (64%)
19273622 (61%)
19262518 (72%)
19253825 (66%)
19243818 (47%)
19232819 (68%)
19222717 (63%)
19213219 (59%)
19203325 (76%)
*Peak usage

My initial guess was that either the Amish or the Mennonites were behind the heavy Pennsylvania usage. Reading through obituaries and online memorials, though, I’ve found women named Romaine/Romayne who were members of various religious groups: Mennonite, Catholic, Jewish, Episcopalian, Methodist, etc. So I’m not sure if that theory holds water.

My next guess was that it represented transferred usage of the surname Romaine (a form of the Dutch surname Romein), perhaps due to the influence of the French name Germaine. But I don’t know why this would have been any more likely to happen in Pennsylvania than in, say, New Jersey or New York (both of which also saw a lot of Dutch settlement during the 1600s).

What are your thoughts on this?

P.S. A similar name, Rolayne, saw a bit of usage among Mormons decades ago…

Source: Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Baby born into Lear family, named Shanda

chandelier

Self-taught inventor and businessman William P. “Bill” Lear (1902-1978) is best remembered as the founder of Learjet, the first company to manufacture compact business jets.

In the world of baby names, though, he has an entirely different claim to fame: He named a daughter Shanda to create the pun-name Shanda Lear (read: chandelier).

So, what’s the story?

Bill met his fourth wife, Moya Olsen, in the mid-1930s. They met through Moya’s father, vaudeville comedian John “Ole” Olsen.

They had their first date (drinks at the Stork Club) in 1938, and tied the knot in early 1942.

Bill, who already had three children (Mary Louise, William, and Patti) from previous marriages, went on to have four more children with Moya.

Their first was a boy named John, born in December of 1942.

Their second, born in 1944, was a girl — and she was indeed named Shanda. Years later, Moya recounted:

My father said if you have a girl, her name has to be Shanda. S-H-A-N-D-A. Shanda Lear. And if it’s a boy, you name it Gonda and if you’re not sure, it’s Lava.

Their last two children were named David (b. 1948) and Tina (b. 1954).

During an interview in 2007, Shanda Lear mentioned her name while describing her father, who she said was a “quixotic, outspoken and charismatic man who had a great sense of humor. He thought it was quite funny naming me Shanda Lear.”

What are your thoughts on this name?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Lloyd’s Building – Adam Room chandelier by Colin under CC BY-SA 4.0.

What gave the baby name Latifah a boost in the early 1990s?

Queen Latifah's album "All Hail the Queen" (1989).
Queen Latifah album

The name Latifah, which has been appearing the U.S. baby name data since the 1970s, saw a dramatic increase in usage in the early 1990s. It even reached the top 1,000 twice.

  • 1993: 73 baby girls named Latifah
  • 1992: 251 baby girls named Latifah [rank: 803rd]
  • 1991: 150 baby girls named Latifah
  • 1990: 300 baby girls named Latifah [rank: 702nd] – peak usage
  • 1989: 93 baby girls named Latifah
  • 1988: 8 baby girls named Latifah

(The spelling Latifa also saw peak usage in 1990, and the versions Latifha, Latiffa, and Latifia debuted that year as well.)

Why?

Because of socially conscious hip-hop artist Queen Latifah.

She rose to fame with the release of her debut album, All Hail the Queen, released in November of 1989. It spawned five singles, including “Ladies First” and “Come Into My House.” Her follow-up album, released in mid-1991, wasn’t as commercially successful but does account for the second spike in usage in 1992.

After her initial success as a rapper, Queen Latifah branched out into acting. One of her most memorable early roles was that of Khadijah James on the TV series Living Single (1993-1998).

Queen Latifah was born Dana Elaine Owens in New Jersey in 1970. The “Latifah” part of her stage name — which she pronounces with a somewhat extended first syllable, “laa–tifah” — began as a childhood nickname:

Q: Did you choose it for yourself?

A: No, actually it was my cousin — well, sort of, I sort of chose it. We were going through the Muslim book of names when I was eight. My cousin Sharonda is Muslim, and so we came across Latifah, and I was like, “Oh, I like that.” She was like, “Yeah, I’m gonna give you that name. That name should be yours.” So, I kept it, ever since I was eight, through high school and whatever.

Queen Latifah was drawn specifically to the meaning of the Arabic name Latifah, which she has defined in various interviews using words like “delicate,” “sensitive,” “kind,” and “nice.” (The site Behind the Name defines the masculine version, Latif, as “gentle, kind.”)

What are your thoughts on name Latifah? (Do you like it more or less than the name Dana?)

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